Heavenly Blue
by The Tambourine Man
Summary: Nico Emery survives a massacre by the imperial army, cloaked in blue flame. Having lost her family and home, she joins the army in hope of preventing further tragedy. She starts to build a new family among her squad mates, but she struggles with the question of how to use her power. Valkyria Nico.
1. Your Nature

The first thing Nico felt was pain. Not a sharp, shooting pain or a fierce burning pain, but a dull ache that was spread all through her body. It wasn't demanding any action. If anything, it seemed to demand that she do nothing and continue laying on her… no, wait this wasn't her bed. Her bed was hardly soft, but it wasn't like this. It felt more like she was on the floor. Why would she do that? The aching pushed that thought away. It was quiet out, which was hardly out of the ordinary; Including her, there were only six women living at the convent. Things had been louder when she was a kid, but one way or another many of the sisters had left, and she wasn't sure that she'd ever seen any one new come.

Her nose stung. Something here smelled strange. There was something metallic, mixed with something sweet. It was kind of familiar, but she couldn't quite put finger on it. Had someone spilled something? If they had she needed to clean it up. Was it the- for a moment the aching seemed to get worse- Soldiers that had come from the Empire? Nico frowned. They didn't have many guests, being in a rather remote part of the mountains, but she definitely didn't remember any guests being as rude as they were. Apparently, some borders had changed and they were now part of imperial territory. And that meant all of a sudden they had to pay imperial taxes. What did they even have to tax? About all they had to support themselves was a vegetable garden, a few beehives, and the generosity of the nearby villages.

And did soldiers normally collect taxes?

She groaned. Somehow the pain got worse. _Much_ worse. The smell stung her nose. Was that what happened? Were the soldiers responsible for whatever that smell was? What had they _done?_ Surely it wouldn't be too bad simply for being poor, right? She needed to get up and clean it. That's how it was when there was an issue, wasn't there? It was her obligation, her _duty._ She only wished her limbs had the same enthusiasm. It seemed to take a full minute or two just to push herself up into a sitting position. It was followed by another surprising effort to even open her eyes.

Her scream tore through the quiet evening.

She was at the entrance to the convent. The battered wooden door hung open, letting in the orange rays of twilight in. She could see the lone dirt road that led across the heavily wooded mountain. Two trucks with the markings of the imperial army were parked not far away. They were unlikely to be moved anytime soon. Two of the soldiers were lying on the ground in front of her. One had a deep cut in his neck. The other had several small perforations in his armor. She would have taken them to be bullet holes, except that on closer inspection, the metal hadn't simply been punched in, but had melted. Their blood had pooled out on the floor. She had lain close enough to it that blood had soaked into her wool dress.

Nico clamped her left hand over her mouth and crossed herself with her right. She worked her mind, trying to figure out what could have happened. Had federation soldiers caught them? Is that why they were killed, but not her? But from the way the soldiers were facing, they had been trying to exit. She tried to hold as still as she could, tried to _breathe_ as little as she could. The minutes ticked by in stillness, but nobody came. She pushed herself to her feet. She had to do something, even if this problem was going to take more than a mop to deal with.

That was when she saw it. Something else soaked in blood. She stooped over, once again cursing how sore her body seemed to be, and picked it up. She cleaned it carefully on the hem of her dress, making a note to herself to clean it more thoroughly later. It was a stone knife, about ten inches long. An artifact more than 1500 years old. Originally owned by a woman who had risked her life time and again to spread the word of God across Europa, now canonized. It was the only item of any true value they had.

It was also supposed to be kept in a glass case in the little storeroom they called their library. Why was it out here? Had the soldiers taken it? Or rather, tried to?

Her head started pounding, but she remembered; they _had._ She and the sisters ha been willing to give up some of their food, if grudgingly given the circumstances, but taking the knife had been where they had drawn the line. All of them had protested loudly. Even sister Doris, and she never raised her voice. That hadn't exactly gone well for them. One of the soldiers had smashed the butt of his gun against the mother superior's face. They'd led the sisters off to one room at gunpoint, but a few soldiers had led Nico off somewhere else.

She couldn't run, so Nico staggered down the hall as quickly as she could. The knife was slipped into the side of her belt. She tried to focus: which room had they been sent to, exactly? It was the common room, wasn't it? They must be okay. They had to be. They had to. She shoved the door open- wait, no, that was the wrong room. She was still alive. She wasn't even injured, whatever had happened to her. There had to be a chance. The pushed her weight against another door to push it open, only to find it was the wrong one again. She was getting distracted. Sister Magda would scold her for it again if she were there to see it. Nico pushed herself onward. Actually wanting to get scolded was a pretty strange feeling.

She finally got to the room she was really looking for. She didn't need to try shoving anything open. The door was already hanging open. There was sister Doris, quiet but always the first to help when people needed it. There was sister Nora, always a woman of good cheer. Next to her was sister Selma, always trying to look adroit and poised, even if no one was fooled. Sister Magda, strict but never uncaring was in the corner. And there was the mother superior, her face showing only a little swelling from the hit she took earlier. Nico went into the room to check if they were okay, but it was purely a formality.

It was quite obvious they were all dead.

All five of them were slumped against the wall, riddled with bullet holes. Blood, now forming into a brown crust, had run down the wall and pooled up on the floor. Nico's leg banged into something, causing her to pitch forward onto the floor. It was an odd relief, not being on her feet any more. Not having to look at the wretched sight against the far wall. But she couldn't stay there. There was too much work to do. She had no idea what she was supposed to do now, but laying on the floor wouldn't do it. She pushed herself up and looked to see what it was she had tripped over.

It was another imperial soldier. Dead, just like the last two. Four of his compatriots were scattered around him in much the same state. The one in the middle had a helmet with several holes punched in it, each big enough for Nico to stick her finger into. Another, lying on his back, had a hole punched into his armor, right around his heart. It was about three inches across. How could she have come in the room and not noticed that? And what had killed them? What _could_ kill someone like that? And why hadn't it done that sooner?

Nico clenched her fist. It wasn't as if anger was any stranger to her, but this was something else. This went against everything she'd been taught. There had been no compassion, no love for another. Why? What was it worth to them? Life was a gift, and a fleeting one at that. It wasn't something to be taken lightly. To treat someone else like a mere obstacle…

Nico lashed out at the nearest body with her foot. Her thin shoe did little to protect her toes from the solder's armored plates. Another sound tore through the quiet evening, this one a loud yelp. She dropped to the ground, seized the dead soldier's helmet, and did her best to wrench it off his head. It didn't matter if he was already dead; he was going to face punishment. It was only fair, wasn't it? What you did to the least of your brothers, you also did to God. That made his actions horrible twice over, didn't it? He had to answer for it. People had to answer for their sins when…

Finally getting the helmet off, Nico looked down at his face. A young man, not much older than her. Almost friendly-looking. His unnaturally pale face was twisted with terror. He was dead. He was already answering. He had likely died right after the killing. To do something so horrible right before his final judgment meant he could be facing a fate far worse that her foot.

Nico shook her head. What was she _doing?_ Trying to hurt someone just to satisfy her own anger didn't bring her closer to God. It wouldn't bring her any joy. It wouldn't undo anything. She could try again and again until she couldn't stand on her foot anymore, and she'd still be alone. She looked back to the sisters against the wall. The sight still churned her stomach. Even if it wasn't much, there was still something she could do.

She knelt next to sister Magda and placed her hands on her, doing her best to disregard the feeling of dried blood on her fingers and the coldness of the deceased woman's skin.

"Heavenly Father, your servant Magda goes before you today…" When She was done with Magda, she moved on to Selma, then the Mother Superior, then Doris, and then Nora. When she was done she looked to the soldiers. _They don't deserve it,_ one part of her said. _No, they don't. But that's not what this is about,_ another part responded. She went from one soldier to the next, mush as she had with the sisters, although this time her intonation for each sharp and matter-of-fact. After a moment's consideration, she returned to the two soldiers at the entryway.

She let out a sigh after she was done. There wasn't anything else she could do but bury everyone. That wasn't going to be a quick task. There were five sisters, and ten soldiers-

There were ten soldiers who had come. She had only found seven so far. What happened to the other three? They hadn't taken any of the trucks. Were they still here, in hiding? Were they killed by whatever had killed the others? Had they fled into the forest? What if they were what killed the other soldiers? But then why? What had happened? She tried to remember. Three of them had led her away. The other seven had led the sisters into that room.

She took off down the hallway, her limbs recovered enough to let her walk again, eve if she couldn't quite run. She counted off the doors in her head until she got to the bedchambers. One of the doors was hanging open. She looked in and was revolted, though not surprised, to find the last three soldiers on the floor. She was going to have to dig fifteen graves after all.

She tapped her chin, trying to remember. _Something_ had to have happened. The soldiers couldn't have killed themselves. And she had to have gotten from the room to the entrance somehow. She started looking through the room to see if there were any clues. There were a lot of shell casings on the floor, but nothing in the room appeared damaged. There was nothing under the bed. Nothing unusual in the dresser. Nothing under the chair. That was about it. The room was rather small and had little in the way of furnishing.

It was purely coincidence that she saw it. She glanced over her shoulder and into the small mirror hanging over the dresser. There was something on the back of her dress; a long stain of a color she had seen quite a bit that day. The rust brown of dried blood.

She ran her hand over it. Something had split the fabric, but the skin under it seemed intact. It wasn't hurting, either. That was when she got an odd idea. She pulled the knife from her belt and held it flat against her back.

It was the exact width of the cut. _One of the soldiers brought it with him. I started yelling at him and then he-_

Her reflection changed. It took her a moment to notice. Her eyes had turned from green to red.

 _She was in the room with the soldiers again. She felt odd. Her mind was hazy, like she was trying to fall asleep and got stuck halfway, although she didn't feel tired. There was an odd warmth coming from around her, as well as a dull pain in her back. She reached back to examine it, and her fingers brushed something sticking out. She wrapped her fingers around it and gave it a quick, firm pull. The pain flared for a moment before fading away. She examined the knife she was now holding. It seemed familiar, though she couldn't recall why at the time. The blade was wet with blood, but a design of curved lines glowed blue across its surface._

 _She had forgotten the men were still there until they started yelling. She should have understood the words, but the meaning seemed to elude her. She could tell they sounded scared, though. They leveled their guns at her and fired. The shots were dreadfully loud and echoed quite a bit, especially in such a small room. The shots hurt, about like having a handful of gravel thrown at you. She regarded them dispassionately._

 _Their guns felt quiet. One of them began fumbling for the magazine and yelling at the others. They followed his lead after a moment._ They were trying to kill her. _The thought was quick and matter-of-fact. It didn't seem to inspire any fear or anger. She had an inkling there was something wrong about that. One of the men, having replaced the magazine in his gun, tried to bring it back up again. He didn't get to fire again._

 _She jabbed the knife forward. He was well out of arm's reach. It didn't matter. As her arm reached its full length, the light on the knife raced to the tip and shot forward in a beam of light the size of a pencil. It tore through his armor, leaving a hole that glowed red hot around the edge. She repeated the action several more times until he slumped to the ground. One of his companions tried to fire his own gun. The other opened the door and tried to flee. Neither of them got very far._

 _She looked down at the three men on the ground. There was something she should have been doing at the moment, but like most of the information she should have known, she couldn't seem to recall what. She left the room, making no effort to avoid getting her feet wet on the blood that had started to pool_

Nico snapped back to the present, suddenly queasy. She remembered what happened to each of the other soldiers. The five who had tried to attack her after their massacre. The two who had fled. The cold, mechanical way she had gone about it all. What they had done was horrible. They had certainly deserved some kind of punishment. It still made her queasy.

 _Lord, forgive me._

 **Author's Note: Yes, this is similar to a concept I used as a joke in another VC4 fic. I came up with it while writing** _ **Just A Little Late.**_ **This story is going to focus on** **N** **ico, her friends Rosetta, Godwin, and Lily, and Odin and Jimmy due to being close with Lily. There are a lot of squad members in VC4 that I like, but I'll have to keep a lot of them in minor roles. Too many characters can make a story cumbersome. Claude et al will have their own role to play. I like _Valkyria_ _Chronicles'_ juxtaposition of real-ish military and fantasy aspects, so that will come up quite a bit. I will, however, do what I can to avoid writing a story about the main character simply steamrolling everything.  
**


	2. Joining Up

Claude Wallace glanced down at the papers on his desk, then looked back at the girl sitting on the other side of the desk. They were in the small room he'd been given as an office for the moment. The Federation being in a rather bad spot in the war meant that anyone over sixteen who could hold a weapon was being accepted. He'd already ha some unusual recruits thus far, and this one was no exception. She was short even for sixteen, with short, unruly blonde hair and big, shining green eyes. He was debating with himself as to what, exactly, he was going to do with her.

"Private Emery?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Before we go any further, I want to ask you some questions."

"O-okay! What is it you need to know?"

"When did you decide to join the army?"

"It was the day after… that incident." Claude did his best not to wince. The massacre of a few nuns was hardly the deadliest incident in the war, but it was one all the newspapers had been eager to talk about.

"Have you ever used a gun before?"

"I've been hunting before, sir."

"How often?"

"…Just one time, sir. And I didn't really hit much. Except for Mister Ilbert's foot." That wasn't an issue in itself. She was hardly the only person under his command with no combat experience. He didn't even have any himself.

"What are your plans for the future? What do you want to do when the war's over?"

"I… haven't thought much about it." Again, not an issue by itself. She was still young. Not everyone her age had much of a plan.

"Are you sure you want to be in a combat unit?"

"Well, it's too late to back out, right?" Not a strong answer, but not an issue by itself.

Claude shook his head. "You don't have to serve in _combat._ I can put in to have you transferred to a support unit instead. It takes a lot more than just soldiers to fight a war, you know."

Nico nodded. "I know, sir." Her voice sounded serious. Grim, even.

"So you want to fight?"

"Yes, sir."

"Why?"

"Um, well…"

Claude shook his head. "Let me put it this way: You lost your family to the empire. Are you looking for revenge?" Nico didn't respond. She seemed lost in thought. "It's not _necessarily_ a problem if you are. I already have people fighting for a lot of different reasons. What I need to know is-"

"That's not it!" Nico blurted out, before adding "Sir."

"Alright then. What is it?"

"After… _that_ , I had a lot of time by myself. I realized… this is what war does, isn't it? It's not just people dying in battle. People die in the chaos, and a lot of people are left behind who have to deal with that pain. And it's… How many people are going to die? How many will have to mourn? And the only way to stop it is…"

"Are you saying you want to end the war? It's good to have ambition, but I doubt our squad is going to be ending the war on it's own."

"I know. I may not make much of a difference…" Nico fidgeted in her seat. It looked like she was trying to scratch her back against the backrest. "But I have to do something. I have a duty"

Claude nodded. "I think that's all I needed to hear." He stood up, and offered her his hand. "Welcome to Squad E, Nico. You'll need to see the quartermaster about your uniform. We're to be starting basic training tomorrow, so I advise making the most of your downtime today. Try to get to know the rest of the squad."

"Yes sir!" Nico said, giving him a salute.

"That… wasn't an order."

 **Author's Note: I thought this chapter would be longer than it turned out to be. It feels a little short to be it's own chapter, but it makes for a natural breaking point. I'll admit upfront that I've never been in the military, and I don't know a lot about military life, so I can't make any promises as to how accurate this will be. Next up, we meet our supporting cast.**


	3. New Companions

It didn't take long for Nico to encounter her first problem; Where, exactly, was the quartermaster? She hadn't seen much of the base, and it seemed easy to get turned around. There were people bustling to and fro; Some carrying supplies, some already in uniform and marching in formation, and a few others were still dressed as civilians and seemed to be as lost as her. She decided that it would be best to simply ask for directions.

That did not work out quite as well as she'd hoped. Some of the people ignored her. Some couldn't seem to hear her. One person didn't speak her language. One drill sergeant leading a squad in a run yelled at her for interrupting him, even though she'd barely said hey.

"Are you looking for something?" For once, someone else had approached her. He was a tall man with short, brown hair. She guessed he was somewhere around middle age, given the lines on his face. Most importantly, he was wearing a uniform. "Everything okay? You seem a little lost."

"Oh, yes. Could you please tell me where the Quartermaster is, sir?"

"Ah, so nice to meet such a polite kid. It's in the building right around the corner there. And, if you don't mind me asking, what unit are you in?"

"Squad E, sir."

"Ah, no need to be so former. I'm just another soldier, like you. Name's Jimmy. Jimmy Frank." He offered her his hand. "And by coincidence, I'm going to be in Squad E as well."

"Nico Emery. Nice to meet you, Mr. Frank."

"Just Jimmy's fine. And, from one squad mate to another, let my give you a little advice." He reached into his pocket, pulled out a well-worn piece of paper, and handed it to her. She unfolded it and took a look. It was a picture of Jimmy, with his arm around a woman. "We're all here fighting _for_ something. I'm fighting for my wife there. Never forget what you're fighting for, Nico. You got a family back home?"

"No, si-Jimmy."

The shocked look on his face was the first time she had seen him not smile. "Y-you don't? Well, you must have some friends back home right? Maybe even someone special?

"I don't… really have any friends anymore. And, um, I grew up in a convent…"

A look of recognition crossed Jimmy's face. He put a hand on Nico's shoulder. "Well, I'll tell you what. When we're done with our tour, if you need a place to go for a while, you can stay with me and the family."

Nico stared at the picture in her hand. Somewhere out there, there was a bed waiting for her. A place she could call home. The two in the photo could be her family. "Really? That won't be too much trouble? I mean, you really don't know me well."

"Ah even if I don't know you well _now,_ I'm sure we'll be good friends once this is all over. Just remember, you've got something to fight for, now."

"Thank you, Jimmy."

Nico started towards the Quartermaster, with Jimmy heading in the opposite direction. She didn't get far before another voice interrupted her.

"That's a pretty good racket you've got there."

Nico turned to see a man leaning against one of the buildings. He was wearing a uniform and had the dark blue hair of a Darcsen. Between the pointed goatee, the scar over his eye, and the glare on his face, he looked about as far from friendly as one could get.

"What do you mean?"

"You give the guy the cute little smile, feed him a bit of a sob story, and you got him eating out of your hand. Couldn't'a picked a better mark, either. Letting someone he doesn't know live him? How dumb can you be?"

"That's not true! I'm not trying to trick him! I was just answering his questions honestly. It was very kind of him to offer me a place in his home like that. You really shouldn't speak badly of him."

"So that's how it's going to be, huh? Great. First I get stuck under some greenhorn, and now _this._ I should've known they'd stick me in a squad with people like you." He pushed himself off the wall and walked over to her, slowly. "You really think it's a good idea to trust him like that? What a sap."

Nico frowned.

"You hadn't even thought of it, had you? Your head's just full of sunshine and rainbows."

"So, you think that I'm trying to trick him, and he's a fool for trying to help me?"

"Wow. You remember what I already said."

"And you think that he's trying to trick me, and I'm a fool for trusting him?"

"What are you getting at?"

"Who do you think is trying to fool who?" It wasn't even an accusation. She just sounded confused.

"Tch. I don't have to put up with this." He started to walk away.

"Wait! …Sir."

"What?" he answered, without bothering to turn around.

"What's your name?"

That got him to turn around. "You're asking for my name? After that?"

"You said we're going to be in the same squad, right? It would be a lot easier to talk to you if I knew your name."

"That's a good reason to not tell you."

"Okay, I could give you a nickname-"

"Godwin." He gestured to his dark hair. " _Just_ Godwin." He turned and stormed away.

Nico went around the corner and found the door with the large sign that said _QUARTERMASTER._ She went through the open door, and was a little relieved that it wasn't too busy at the moment; there was currently only one other recruit there.

"I'm sorry, but this one didn't fit either." Said the blonde woman standing in front of the counter. Nico could see why she was having trouble; she was tall and broad-shouldered, larger than most of the women she'd ever met. If she tried wearing the same red dress the woman was, it would drag on the ground.

"I see. Well, I'm afraid that's our largest size for women. " The man behind the counter seemed to hesitate. He started fidgeting, and seemed to have trouble looking at her.

The woman sighed. "I'll take a men's, then." The man behind the counter set off into the aisle of shelves behind him.

Nico walked over to the counter. The woman turned to look at her, and her face dropped.

"Are… are you one of the recruits?"

"Yes, ma'am. Private Nico Emery, Squad E, 503- wait, no, it was 501- or 105?"

"How old are you?"

Nico frowned. Why did she seem so disappointed? "Sixteen, ma'am"

"They let you join _that_ young?" She shook her head. "A girl your age should be finishing school, or chasing after a boy, or starting an apprenticeship. Just about anything but dodging bullets and killing people."

Nico's gaze dropped. She started wringing her hands, unconsciously. She'd told reporters about the raid, about the nuns had been killed. She told them she'd survived by hiding in a closet. What had actually happened- her _real_ nature- was something she wasn't eager to share.

"I'm sorry." The tall woman said. "It looks like I struck a nerve."

"It's okay. It's just that… this is what I have to do."

"And why is that? If you don't mind me asking."

"Did... did you read about what happened at that convent?"

Her eyes lit up for a moment as it dawned on her. "You're _that_ girl, then?"

Nico nodded. It was easier than saying anything.

"I suppose you do have your own reason to fight, but try to keep in mind that there are better things waiting after the war."

"I will. Thank you, ma'am."

"There's no need to call me 'ma'am'. I'm just another private. Rosetta is fine."

"Okay. Thank you, Rosetta."

"You're welcome, my child."

The awkwardness was palpable. It pressed down on everything, demanding a total absence of both movement and sound. Rosetta tried to fight it, but to no avail. Nico tried taking a stab at it herself.

"So… _how_ old are you, Rosetta?"

"I- that- e- Not nearly that ol- No, no, no. I didn't mean it like that, Nico. It was a slip of the tongue. Something from my old career."

"Here you go." The man finally returned to the counter, carrying a bundle of clothing under his arm.

"Thank you" she said, taking the bundle from him. She turned to Nico. "Come to me if you have any trouble, Nico."

Nico nodded as she left, before making her own request for a uniform.

Finding the barracks for Squad E was easier than finding the Quartermaster, at least. She held her new uniform under one arm. It was a large, plain room with a row of cots running down the wall on either side. Each cot had a small trunk next to it, containing a few personal posessions they were allowed. Nico wasn't in a hurry to find hers. It was almost empty, anyways.

"NOOOOO! THAT CAN'T BE!"

That, and the two people who were already in the room were drawing her attention.

"Come on, that has to be some kind of mistake." The one talking was a young man sitting on one of the cots, tall and with the deep tan of someone who spent every waking hour in the sun. Part of his long black hair that fell over one eye; the rest was pulled back into a thin… was "ponytail" still the right word when a guy had it? He might have looked cool, but his current panic was not terribly impressive.

"Oh, stop worrying about that." Said the other one, a woman facing him from another cot. They were looking at something laid out on one of the trunks arranged between them. She was terribly pale, as though she were sickly or avoided the sun, and her pale grey eyes regarded the world with a faint interest. Her black hair was tied into short braids on either side of her head and each tied with a blue ribbon, likely a girlhood hairstyle she had never outgrown.

"What's not to worry about!? You drew _Death!"_

"'Death' isn't necessarily a bad sign, Thomas. It just means that one cycle is ending and another is starting. It could just be about you joining the army at all.

"I-it does, really?"

"Of course. It's The Tower you should be worried about. _That's_ the card that represents calamity."

Nico looked down at the three cards laid out on the trunk. One had a skeleton holding a scythe. The second was a tower being struck by lightning. The third was a woman pouring water onto a crayfish under the moon. It was also upside-down compared to the other cards.

"And The Moon. That symbolizes illusion and mystery. Or, since it's reversed, delusion."

"A-and what does that mean?"

"Your life's going to change, something bad's going to happen, and someone's going to go crazy. Or something like that. Tarot's not always the clearest."

The man looked terrified. He was nearly pulled into a ball, and shaking like a leaf in a storm. Nico didn't even realize what she was doing until her hand was on his shoulder.

"Don't worry about the future. We don't know what's really going to happen."

"The cards really don't look good." The man said.

"They're just cards. They don't know _anything._ There's no reason to be afraid of the future."

"Except that we're going to be fighting in a war. I believe the last one killed a few million people." The black-haired woman chimed in.

"Okay, I could have put that better. But you still shouldn't be afraid."

"Why not?" It wasn't a challenge. The note of hope in his voice was unmistakable.

She looked at him. She'd just met him. She didn't know his name. Didn't know why he was here, or what he was trying to do. All she knew was that he was scared, and was looking for some kind of reassurance. "…Because whatever happens in this war, I'll be there for you. I promise."

The black-haired woman smiled. "Well, Thomas, looks like you've got your own guardian angel."

"Thanks, uh… whatever your name is."

"Nico Emery."

"That's Thomas Kevin. And I'm Lily Allen. It's a pleasure to meet you, Nico." Lily offered her a hand. "You seem like you'll be a very interesting person. It's a shame you don't have much luck." She sounded like she was commenting on a movie she was only half-interested in.

"I don't know if I'd say that."

"You can't be too lucky, if you got put in the same unit as me."

"What does that mean? Wait, was that a threat?"

"She's cursed." Thomas interjected.

"It's true. Everyone around me always has the _worst_ luck. I enlisted just to see what it would do in a battle. _Someone's_ going to be having some terrible luck."

"And I'm here because my parents wanted me out of the house." Thomas grumbled.

"And I'm here to- oh, right. I need to change my clothes. Could you guys…"

"Oh, don't worry. Thomas won't bother you. _Right, Thomas?_ "

"I-I-I wasn't going to! Jeez!" said Thomas, as he averted his gaze.

Nico turned her back to them. She pulled her dress off, slipped out of her shoes, and began to put on her uniform, starting with the dark-colored leggings, then the brown shorts, then the heavy combat boots. She was just pulling on her padded undershirt when Lily spoke up again.

"Oh, worried about the kind of people you'll meet in camp, are you?"

Nico didn't have to ask. She knew what Lily was talking about; the leather belt running around her midsection, securing a leather sheath holding a certain stone knife in the small of her back.

There was an intellectual part of her that knew the knife meant power, and that she would likely need it soon. Another, emotional part wanted to keep it as an anchor to her old life. A devout part insisted that such a relic belonged in a church, not a battlefield. Yet another, still disgusted, thought the world might be better off without it.

"I-its not like that. It's just an heirloom."

"Wait, what are you guys talking about?" Thomas asked.

"Nothing. Just make sure our CO doesn't find out about that, Nico."

Nico pulled on her padded green undershirt, followed by her brown-and-white jacket. Finally came the metal plates for her knees, hips, and shoulders. She'd seen other soldiers not wearing them yet, but it seemed best to get used to them now. She turned to see that Thomas was still looking away, and that Lily had a different set of cards laid out in front of her; a girl petting a lion, a man dangling from his ankle, and a sun with a smiling face.

"I did a reading for you. Hope you don't mind. I think it fits you well. _Especially_ Strength."

"Oh, Lily. Don't be silly. They're just cards. It doesn't mean anything." She wasn't starting to suspect anything, was she?

"If you insist." She picked up the three cards and shuffled them back into the deck. "I know a little card game we could play. It's kind of like Pitch."

"I've never heard of that one." Nico said.

"You haven't?" said Thomas, sounding shocked.

"Guess we have two games to teach you then. If you're interested."

Nico took a seat next to Lily.

"Okay, first we deal out the deck…"

 **Author's Note: Next up, training.**


	4. Difficult Paths

They woke up before five o'clock. They had a minute or so to get up and dressed, though most of them had just slept in their uniform. Once they were done, they were led out into the parade ground. There were a few stragglers.

"Thomas. Wake up."

Thomas responded with a series of vocalizations that could almost be called words.

"You must wake up. They're going to get mad if you don't!" Nico urged further, shaking his shoulder to emphasize the point. "They're going to make you… clean the toilets! With your own hair!"

"Hehe, well, can't say I've ever heard of _that_ punishment before." Said Jimmy, walking over to the other side of Thomas' bed. "Nico's right, though, Thomas. They're not going to make this any easier if you dawdle."

Again, Thomas' response wasn't exactly made of words.

"Thomas, please!"

"Aw, don't sweat it, kid. I know a good way to deal with a slugabed like this." And with that Jimmy picked up the still sleeping Thomas and put him over his shoulder. Nico let out a startled gasp. "Nothing like the army to build up your strength, huh? Morning air's always a good way to get up."

He carried Thomas out with the others. Nico followed him, wondering if 'slugabed' was a real word.

* * *

Once the members of Squad E had assembled, they were given a brief instruction in physical exercises before being put through stretches, calisthenics, and a long run. Breakfast was a gelatinous substance that had once been eggs and bacon with roughly the taste and texture of tree bark. After that, they split up for individualized training based on combat roles.

* * *

"Welcome to the Engineer training course, privates. Engineers are not the flashiest or most spectacular of soldiers. You won't be stopping any tanks or shooting an enemy commander from a half-mile away. If you are doing your job properly, you will likely not be involved in any spectacular heroics. You are strongly advised to hang back any let your allies advance first. However, any combat unit will need Engineers. If a vehicle is damaged, or an ally has stepped onto a landmine, your comrades will rely on you. Your mechanical acumen _will_ decide if your comrades live or die. Consequently, much of your training will focus on honing those skills, and developing your ability to use them under fire. And remember: That is _not_ a figure of speech.

"We will begin by determining exactly what you know. In front of each of you is a collection of engine components. You are to assemble them in the proper manner with the tools provided. You have five minutes. Go."

The dark-skinned man sitting at the bench on the right, Aulard, took off right away. The woman on the left, Rita, took a few moments to think through it before she began her assembly. Nico, sitting in the middle, looked at everything as though it were from another planet. Her most technical experience was changing the tire on a bike. She had not idea what most of the things in front of her were, much less that they were supposed to be part of some whole.

"Four minutes left."

Still, she had to do something. Everything was supposed to fit together. Maybe she should think of it like a puzzle? So if this part had a portion shaped like the hole on this one, then-

"Time's up. Let's see what you've got."

Aulard and Rita presented him with identical assemblies. The instructor simply nodded at each. And then he looked at Nico's.

"Well, private Emery, you seem to have made quite a mess." Nico flinched. He was hardly wrong. Hers didn't look anything like the other twos'. "This washer is bent at a ninety-degree angle, that screw was forced into a hole a quarter inch too small, and why is your screwdriver sticking out of this mess?"

"I couldn't pull it out, sir."

The instructor decided to remove it himself. Or at least, he tried. After several minutes of straining, groaning, and sweating, he gave up on it.

"It appears we have… _uneven_ readiness among the class."

* * *

They had a brief free time each evening, and Nico found herself playing cards most nights.

"And… oh! I win."

"Hmmm. Getting better. You're a quick learner, Nico."

"Oh, no. It's not that. We used to play Bridge a lot, and this is kind of similar."

"Isn't Bridge usually a game for older women?"

"I don't know. I never really thought about it." Few young nuns had ever come to their convent, and they'd never stayed long.

"What's bridge?" Thomas asked.

"It's a card game. I hear it's popular in Vinland." Lily chimed in.

"I'd offer to show you how to play, but I don't know how to play with three players." Nico said sadly.

"Um…" Thomas wanted to help, but this wasn't exactly his strong suite. "Hey, do you guys know Hearts?"

"No, I don't." said Lily.

"First, take out the two of…" They always played with Lily's deck, what she called the 'minor arcana'. It had four suites of thirteen cards, so it was familiar to play with, but he had to stop and think of how to translate from one set to the other. "…uh, coins? I guess that's good… Then, deal out the cards…"

* * *

"Defusing land mines will be one of your most important tasks. Today, you will be practicing on one of these." The instructor said, holding up a short, metal cylinder. "This is a replica of the model of mine used most often by the Empire. Since this is purely for training purposes, these do not contain any actual explosives. However, there is a mechanism to let you know if you've made a mistake. Watch carefully and pay attention; when dealing with a real mine, you only get one chance." And with that, he launched into a demonstration of how to disarm it.

In order to properly simulate the conditions of a real battlefield, they would be disarming the simulation mines while one of their comrades stood on them. Nico was surprised to recognize the one she would be working with.

"Thomas?"

"Hey, Nico." He sighed.

"What happened?"

"I found out what happens when you fall asleep before breakfast."

"You did that again?"

Nico crouched down and carefully removed a section of the mine's plating.

"Can I ask you something?" Thomas asked.

"Oh, certainly. What do you want to know?"

"How do you get up early like that? What's your secret?"

Nico shrugged. "There was always something we had to do early at the convent. I guess it's just a habit." She blinked. That was the right part she'd just disconnected from the pressure plate, right? She hadn't let herself get distracted that badly, right?"

"So, how's Engineer training going?"

"G-good! Good! It's all going good." She said, disconnected a component that may or may not have been irrelevant to actually disarming it. "Okay, that should be good. You can take your-"

For a moment the world turned blue. What happened? Did he give them live mines by mistake? Was the instructor mad that she'd ruined more screwdrivers? It wasn't her powers acting up, was it? Thinking about "her powers" still sounded weird, even in her head. She still didn't have much idea of how they worked, and she hadn't exactly practiced much.

"Ewww." Thomas' voice snapped her back to reality. He was still standing in front of her, most of his lower body colored blue and dripping wet. Nico looked down at herself. Her clothing, and the exposed part of her skin, were also blue, and she had the particular chill of someone who was wet on a warm day. The ground around them for several feet in every direction was also dripping blue.

"What is this?" Nico asked.

"It looks like paint." Thomas responded.

"It's actually a dye." The instructor chimed in. "It means you failed. If that had been a real mine, then we would be sending your next-of-kin the sponge we used to sop up your remains. I must say, Private Emery, that this is exactly what I expected from you."

Aulard and Rita were already done, and decidedly un-blue. Both of them were watching what was unfolding. Aulard looked troubled. Rita looked angry.

"Tell me, Private Emery, _why_ do you want to be an Engineer? It's clearly not for your mechanical skills."

"Engineers are the ones who are supposed to heal people, right? If they're hurt and the medic might not get there in time?"

"They are." The instructor responded. "But they have many other roles as well. If you can't carry out all of those roles, then you are not fit to be a Engineer."

"I-I'll do better. I promise." Nico didn't sound very convincing. The fact she was saying it while hanging her head didn't help.

The instructor nodded, a perfunctory gesture that only indicated he had heard her. "It's time for marksmanship. The dye washes out in water. You two can take care of that _after_ training."

As she started to go, she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. "You'll… get better." Thomas was never good with words, but it was strange that her shoulder felt lighter with his hand on it.

* * *

Put butt to shoulder. Lean in. Sight quickly. Squeeze trigger. Two. Three. Four. Five. Stop. Gun down. Remove magazine. Empty chamber. Replace clip. Re-insert magazine. Repeat. The drill was always the same. Firearms had to become second nature, something they could do without thinking. Nico had found herself going through it in her dreams lately.

"Cease Fire."

The shooting stopped. They went out on the range to collect the paper that served as their targets. She, Rita, and Aulard gathered in a circle to compare their results.

"Wow. Good job, Nico!" Rita offered, unprompted. Rita's and Aulard's targets had holes scattered throughout. For Nico's, there was one hole in the center large enough to fit her finger through. "Guess we know what you're good at, huh?" She punctuated it with a pat on the back. Nico nodded. She knew Rita was trying to cheer her up, but somehow she didn't feel very reassured.

* * *

Sunday was their day off. Church service wasn't much to write home about; they met in the cafeteria, they had to share bibles because they didn't have enough for everyone, and the chaplain was obviously inexperienced. Despite that, Nico found she didn't mind too much. Everything else about her life- her home, her friends, her daily routine, her goals, her very view of herself- had been upended or changed completely. To hold that familiar book, to hear the stories she'd heard countless times once more, to take Communion again, gave her continuity and reminded her that the girl at the convent wasn't just a dream she had once.

She was on her way out after the service when she noticed the chaplain talking with Rosetta.

"I r-really never expected to see you again in a place like this." He was saying to her. He still looked nervous.

"Oh, you know him?" she asked.

"Sort of."

"W-we weren't close, exactly, but Rosetta was the one who inspired me to follow my current calling."

What Rosetta had said the other day clicked into place. "Wait, Rosetta, are you-"

"I was… part of the church."

"Why did you leave?"

"I'm wondering that myself." The chaplain said. "You seemed quite happy there before."

Rosetta shook her head. "Something happened, and staying became painful. I'd rather not talk about it too much. It's good to see you again, Bruno." She said to the chaplain before leaving.

* * *

"The goal of the game is to avoid getting any of the coin cards, right? I just got all of them." Lily announced. "This is the most spectacular defeat I've ever had." She sounded delighted, or at least as delighted as Lily got.

"Do you have the Queen of Swords as well?" Thomas asked.

"Ah, yes, the other penalty card. I have her, as well."

"You win." Thomas announced glumly.

"Huh?" Nico asked.

"You're going to have to explain." Lily said, also sounding confused.

"Getting _all_ of the penalty cards means you win the game. It's called 'Shooting the Moon'."

"That seems like an odd rule." Lily noted. She still wasn't complaining, though.

"It's a strategy that can work with a hand that wouldn't be useful otherwise. Sometimes it's the only thing you can do."

"See, Lily? You did have good luck. You won without even realizing it."

"You could look at it that way. But when people are working against each other, one person's good luck is someone else's bad luck."

"That's pretty complicated."

"Yeah. It's one of the things I love about luck."

* * *

"So, you were looking for Claude? I'm afraid he's busy right now." Kai Schulen was a trusted member of their squad's leadership. His dark, sunken eyes gave him a suspicious appearance, but Nico had never seen him be anything but friendly. "So, just tell me what's wrong, and I'll pass it on to him. Sound good?"

"Well, sir, I need to put in a request…"

* * *

"Welcome to the Scout program, private Emery." At the very least, there were some familiar faces here: Thomas, Rosetta, and Godwin were among the numerous Scout trainees. "You may have noticed that there are far more Scouts that Engineers. There's a reason for that. As a scout-" There was a wave of annoyance throughout the other trainees. Nico got the sense that this wasn't the first time he gave this spiel. "Your most important job is to collect information as the battle is unfolding. That means you'll usually be the first person going into any area, and with the least idea as to what's waiting for you. Scouts traditionally have the highest mortality rate among infantry. I hope you're a quick learner, because you're joining late and we aren't going to wait up for you."

One of the main exercises for Scouts was running a course through some old buildings, or the local forest, or wherever else it could be set up, and try to spot each of the dummies that had been set up and radio them in. She could handle the running well; training for the Engineers had included running while weighed down with a full set of tools.

"You successfully spotted 24 out of 25 of the dummies. And if you think that sounds good, it isn't. Anything but a perfect score here is a failure. In a real battle, an enemy you failed to spot could be the end of you." He turned to one of the other Scouts. "Private Leach, you're up next."

Nico went to watch her with the other trainees. "Don't be _too_ troubled by the result, Nico." Rosetta whispered to her. "He's right about needing to see everything, but you did well for your first try."

Nico nodded, a silent _Thank you._

 **Author's note: I originally intended for this chapter to be more lighthearted, but plans change.**

 **Addendum: Fixed the formatting. Sorry that was hard to read.**


	5. First Battle

Nico should have been enjoying herself. It was a warm, sunny midsummer day. The village, with its old-fashioned but well maintained buildings was an inviting site. And the _flowers._ The fields were completely covered in them, a massive quilt of colors and shapes. The wind blowing over it carried mixed their scents and filled the air with a sweet fragrance. It wasn't as if she'd never seen flowers before, but she'd never seen then quite like this. It was honestly one of the most beautiful things she'd ever seen.

If only a battle wasn't about to start.

There was a field in front of them, with a farmhouse and windmill to the right and a narrow ridge on their left. Everything in front of her was enemy territory. She could see several Imperial soldiers in the field, ducked behind sandbags and prepared for the Federation assault. There was another Imperial waiting at the top of the ridge. She could see the tank at the far end of the field. She probably shouldn't have been worried. It was just like the drills they'd done dozens of times. Besides, she could survive a hit from a tank shell. Probably. She hadn't gotten the chance to test it out yet, and she wasn't in a hurry to do so.

She was currently hidden behind a truck along the road. None of the Imperial soldiers had seen her yet. There were certain advantages to being the shortest Scout in Squad E. She got on her radio and relayed what she could see to the commander.

" _Understood_." He radioed back. " _Nico, you, Jimmy, and Rosetta and clear out that ridge. The_ Hafen _will be going through the field. Aulard, Curtis, and Neige will be with me. Raz, take Zaiga and Lily and make sure the farm is clear. Move on Kai's signal."_

"Roger that, sir."

" _Roger that_ , _and thank you so much for letting me go with that tank. Mmm…"_

 _"…Roger."_

 _"Roger that. Drinks are on me after this."_

 _"Roger that. Hehe, me and Raz… these guys won't know what'll hit them."_

 _"Roger that. Close quarters fighting already? Just think of all the ways it can go wrong…"_

 _"Roger that, Claude."_

 _"R-roger that, sir. I c-can do this. I can do this. I can-"_

"Don't be afraid. The lord is always watching."

 _"Thank you."_

 _"Would all of you cut that out? We don't have time to shoot the breeze."_ Nico winced. Leena- _Kai-_ had a point, even if she did want to help Neige out. A shot rang out. The scout nearest to Nico collapsed, a line of blood stretched out several feet behind him. " _There's your signal. Get going."_

The shouting of Imperial soldiers reminded her that she didn't have time to worry. The soft patting of boots on the dirt road and a quiet "Ready?" from Rosetta let her know that the rest of her team was there. She let out a breath and nodded. She had only been this scared once in her life, but at the same time her body was buzzing with energy. She glanced down at her arm to make sure that she wasn't glowing. She wasn't ready to show that to the rest of her squad. The three of them took off.

The head of the trail up the ridge was guarded by a Shocktrooper, most likely armed with a machine gun, crouched behind a barricade of sandbags. The typical approach for keeping enemies out of an area. Extremely dangerous, but right now he was still confused about what was going on. Rosetta raised her rifle and took a few shots at him. They went wide- it was hard to aim properly while running- but the fire got him to duck behind the barricade.

Rosetta counted out five shots, then had to reload. The Shocktrooper was standing back up almost as soon as the fifth bullet had passed. That meant it was Nico's turn. She took the next shot. It went too high. She noted to herself that she hadn't taken enough time to line it up.

She lined up her second shot. He wasn't trying to duck again. She had his head right in her sight, but some part of her brain pulled her hands to one side. The second shot missed.

As awful as it was to remember what she'd done in that trance, she might need it again. It might be better to be numb, if it meant that she wouldn't mess up when Jimmy and Rosetta needed her.

Or she might forget who she was again, and be far more dangerous to her companions than the Shocktrooper.

She squeezed off a third shot. Off again. He'd brought up the muzzle of his gun over the barricade. She tried to line up another shot.

The air beside her rumbled. The smell of smoke clashed with the smell of flowers. She didn't need to look back to know that it was Jimmy's. The Anti-Tank Lance he carried had the explosive power to blast through tank armor. It was also heavy enough that one had to be outstandingly strong to be able to aim it properly. The rocket hit the barricade about half a foot to the right of where the Shocktrooper was The barricade exploded, spraying sand high into the air. The Shocktrooper was knocked backwards. He tried to get back up, but never made it. Nico's fourth shot found its mark in his chest. She put another one in an inch to the left. He slumped over.

 _Eleven._

"Nice shot, Nico." Jimmy snapped her back to reality. They were still visible from the field, meaning they were too exposed in their current location. She could hear the sound of Squad E's tank, the _Hafen_ , on the move, driven by Claude himself. The battle was hardly over.

They started up the trail. There were more sandbags, piled waist high, across the trail every ten feet. They weren't hard to climb over, precisely, but it was time consuming in a place where they didn't have much time. They approached the first barricade and ducked behind it. They would do what they had done in training; go over it one by one while the others provided cover fire. That plan went wrong right away when an imperial soldier rose up from behind the next barricade. Rather than raising his gun, he threw something glowing blue at them before ducking again.

It fell to the ground right next to them. A grenade. It looked like Nico was going to find out, one way or another, how durable she was.

Except that she'd spent too long thinking about it. Jimmy flopped down on top of the grenade. He was smiling, and Nico couldn't tell if it was real or something he was trying to fake. "Hello, ladies. I hope you're doing well this-" He was cut off as there was a muffled but still very loud blast from underneath him. It knocked the wind out of him and left his eyes bulging, but the fact he wasn't coated over the surrounding acre was a welcome relief.

"Well that was a pretty-oof. Oh, yeah, that's a busted rib."

"You shouldn't talk. Nico-" Rosetta cut herself off as the Imperial soldier rose up once again, trying to see how his attack had gone. She readied her gun. Nico made sure she was ducked behind the sandbags, then tried to flip Jimmy onto his back. Nico was stronger than when she enlisted, but Jimmy wasn't small and the heavy blast suit he wore didn't help. She could barely get him to budge, until Jimmy somehow mustered the strength in one arm to push himself up.

Jimmy let out a weak sigh of relief. Having the weight off his stomach was an improvement, if a small one. She unbuttoned his jacket and rolled his shirt up, concern helping her ignore how awkward the task should have felt. Much of his chest was darkened with bruising. His blast suit hadn't stopped all of the damage, even if it had kept him alive. She took the lightbulb-like Ragnaid dispenser from her belt. She held it over his chest, glass section up, and twisted off the cap at the bottom. The viscous blue liquid, now glowing, fell onto his skin.

The effect was quick. She'd seen it at work in training before, but Nico never quite got used to how rapidly it took effect. Before the last of it had poured out, Jimmy's breathing had already normalized. There was some residual bruising, but it was neither as extensive nor as severe as it had been.

"How's that?"

"Feelin' just fine, thanks." Jimmy said. He began putting his clothing back in order. Nico averted her eyes, her face suddenly feeling warm.

She'd forgotten about Rosetta and the other soldier in the commotion. Rosetta was still crouched beside them, looking none the worse for the wear. She could guess how her exchange with the other soldier had gone. Then the air of the village was filled with a loud burst, mixed with the sound of metal crunching.

"What was that?" Nico asked.

"That's the sound of one tank shooting another." Jimmy said matter-of-factly.

"Can you stand?" Rosetta asked, a note of concern in her voice. Jimmy pushed himself to his feet in response. The proceeded up the trail, Nico and Rosetta taking turns covering the other as they advanced. The sound of tanks exchanging gunfire rang out several more times.

 _"We're fine. We can keep going."_

Nico still didn't know much about tanks. She didn't know how much abuse the _Hafen_ could take. She did know that it wouldn't last long at this rate. She also knew that the Imperial tank couldn't stand up to both the _Hafen_ and Jimmy's lance.

The reached the overlook. She should have seen it coming. The Imperials had already sent their own Lancer up. He was already taking aim below, most likely at the _Hafen._ He had a Scout as an escort, though he was currently more focused on the battle below them. She leveled her gun at the Lancer and squeezed her finger three times in succession. The first clanged off his helmet. The second hit the dent the first had made. The third one broke through his helmet. The lancer fell backwards. His lance never went off. Nico let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. Losing their tank- and their commander- could have turned the battle into a disaster for them.

"Y-yuri? Yuri? You alright?" The Imperial scout said. He tried shaking the fallen Lancer's shoulder, to no avail.

 _Twelve._ They were safe. But now there was someone else who was never coming home.

She shouldn't have let herself get lost in thought. The Scout turned on them and opened fire. The other soldiers had been calm and methodical. The Scout was screaming at them, loud and raw. It was one of the most disturbing things Nico had heard, but it didn't translate into him being more effective; Most of his shots went wide. He ran through the entire magazine but kept pulling the trigger, seemingly oblivious to the fact he was no longer firing. He collapsed himself after a single shot from Rosetta.

Nico and Rosetta went to secure the trail on the other side of the overlook. Jimmy took aim at the enemy tank. Even out of the corner of her eye, Nico could tell that the _Hafen_ was damaged. There was currently smoke rising up out of it. They just had to hope that Jimmy to damage the other tank worse.

Without a view of the rest of the battlefield, Nico could only go off what she heard. Claude radioed Aulard for field repairs on the _Hafen._ She heard Jimmy's lance go off several times. She didn't know exactly how many rockets he had, though she knew it couldn't be many. She heard shouting from the imperials, but none of them tried to come up the ridge. There wasn't any big finale to the battle. After a certain point, the cannon on the enemy tank stopped. The sound of shouting and gunfire gradually died out. The village slowly became silent.

 _"Farm's all clear, Claude."_ Raz announced over the radio.

"The ridge is clear." Rosetta radioed.

 _"Do one last check for enemies. Then we move into the town center."_

"Understood. Let's go." Rosetta gestured to the others. She started down, with Jimmy following after. Nico moved to follow them, until a sound drew her attention. It was faint. She wasn't sure what it was, but there was something behind her. She turned, gun at the ready.

Nothing. No reinforcements. No traps. Everything looked the same as it had a minute ago. She moved towards the trail they had taken up, steps slow and deliberate to not throw off her aim. She heard it again, a little clearer. What was going on?

She caught some movement in the corner of her eye. She turned before she realized what it was. The Scout from before. He was reaching for the Ragnaid container on his belt. He was weak. The movement of his arm was slow, strained. It seemed to barely move at all. Nico doubted he would ever be able to get to it himself.

It would probably be easier for her to just leave him be. He would die on his own. Exactly what Rosetta had been trying to do a moment ago. Exactly what Nico had done to two of his compatriots. She could simply turn and walk away. Or, if she wanted to make it quicker, she still had a few bullets left in her gun.

She remembered the way he had yelled after she killed his friend. The confusion. The anger. The _loss._ Why had she joined the army, again?

She reached down, took the Ragnaid dispenser, and broke the cap off the bottom. There wasn't time to get his armor off, so she carefully lined up the dripping fluid with the bullet hole in his armor. His motions grew more relaxed. She gulped as the last of it ran out. What were they going to _do_ with him now? Take him prisoner? She hadn't actually planned anything. Her superiors would likely not be happy if they found out she had helped an enemy soldier.

"Just stay here." She whispered in his ear. Not all of the Ragnaid had actually gotten to his body. He was probably out of danger, but still weak. She could figure something else out later.

She started walking away. Rosetta and the others were probably getting worried. Her heart was pounding, and not because of the battle. She'd saved his life. She shouldn't be feeling guilty, right? How could that not have been the right thing to do? She couldn't reduce something as valuable as someone's life to what was convenient.

An abrupt noise interrupted her worrying. She'd heard the sound several more times that day. She dropped to the ground immediately. The roar of the rocket and the smell of smoke filled the space she had just been standing in. She rolled over onto her back as the headless lance crashed down where she had lain. It was the Imperial soldier she had just healed.

Restored to health, he had immediately tried to kill her again.

He brought the lance back up, readying another overhead swing at the supine figure in front of him. Nico brought her rifle back up and put three shots into his head. He collapsed, well beyond the ability of Ragnaid to bring back.

 _Thirteen._

"Nico? Nico!" Rosetta yelled as she ran back up the ridge. Jimmy was doing his best to follow her, but was weighted down too much to run like she was. "What happened? Who fired that?" She surveyed the view, Nico still on her back and the Scout holding the headless lance. Nico climbed to her feet, unsteady. "Was he playing possum?"

Nico tried to say yes, but it came out as more of an affirmative-sounding grunt. Her stomach sank. Another lie.

"Having trouble, huh?" Jimmy asked, having finally reached the others. "Don't worry so much. You did great." He leaned over and whispered in her ear "It gets easier."

" _Please_ stay with us next time. It's dangerous to be alone."

"I-I will." Nico replied.

Rosetta looked down at their fallen enemies. She bowed her head and clasped her hands in front of her. Nico didn't have to ask what it was for; a prayer for the dead. She followed Rosetta's example.

 _So, this is war._

 **Author's Note: I wanted to give a sense of what a "normal" battle would be like, and how things like a blast suit or Ragnaid would work in a non-video game setting. One of my assumptions for the latter is that it temporarily lets a regular person heal the way a Valkyria does, though it has its limits.**

 _Bonus Scene_

"Alright, we'll be checking this house next." Raz said, gesturing to another nondescript house.

"Are there any Imperials left?" Lily asked. "I think we already killed them. The last eight houses were already empty."

"Don't question Raz!" Zaiga said. "If he says we need to check it out, then-"

"Nah. They probably are dead." Raz cut in. "But we got orders." He didn't bother to hide his annoyance from his subordinates.

They never actually got the chance to enter. A lance head, flying in from the direction of the battle they had just fought, hit the house and blew a deep hole in it. After a long moment filled with groaning wood, the house collapsed into a heap.

Zaiga blinked, trying to figure out what had just happened. Lily was grinning.

"Alright, that one's clear." Raz said. "Don't think we'll be that lucky with the next, though."


	6. Gentle Punishment

Claude rubbed his head and looked across the table at three of his subordinates. He'd left behind any sort of permanent office some time ago; now he had a table covered in maps and reports in an open-air tent. "After reviewing what I know about the last battle, I've decided that Private Emery will be removed from combat duty until further notice." He was expecting the three pairs of eyes looking at him to go wide, though only two of them did. He would have sighed, but he had subordinates present.

"Bu-but- Sir, _please_ reconsider." Nico stammered. "If I'm not out there, then- Then-" She stammered a bit more, but couldn't put together anything coherent.

"Commander, she did great out there." Jimmy interjected. "She did everything she was supposed to, she patched me up, she killed three enemies by herself-" Both of Jimmy's compatriots flinched, though he didn't seem to notice. "What's the problem?"

"The problem is that she got separated from her squad during mop-up. That nearly cost her her life, and a mistake like that puts the rest of your squad in greater danger as well."

"Sir,you have to let me stay! I can't let someone else die because they were out there in my place."

"I understand that you don't want your comrades in danger, but like I said: that's just what a mistake like this can do. I'll reassess putting you back on combat duty, later."

Nico opened her moth to protest again, but Rosetta put her hand on Nico's shoulder. "You aren't going to persuade him. And, frankly, I agree with him that this would be for the best."

Nico nodded her head in mute assent.

"That's all. Dismissed."

The three of them left without any further words. The sun had set some time ago. The night air was warm. Nico noticed the contrast again: it was a pleasant night, there were countless stars shining down, and they were making their way through a barely organized military camp, with a hint of Ragnite fuel and spent ammunition wafting through the air. They made their way back to their tents. Jimmy's was the closest, said a quick goodnight to the other two and retired for the night. Rosetta and Nico made their way on.

"Nico. What you said earlier…" Rosetta trailed off.

"What is it?"

"You think it would be better to put yourself in danger than to let others go in your place, don't you?"

"Oh, yes. I don't want anyone else to get hurt if I can help it."

"That's very brave of you." Nico winced. There was nothing brave about going into battle against people that couldn't hurt you. "But don't discount your own life, either." Rosetta turned to go into her own tent.

* * *

"Ten of Swords." Lily said, laying the card down.

"Nine of Swords." Said Thomas, laying down his own card.

Both of them looked expectantly at Nico, who simply stared blankly at her own hand.

"Uh, Nico-"

"Huh? Oh, right." She hastily laid down the Queen of Cups.

"You win the trick, and two of the worst cards in play. Congratulations." Lily said, a hint of amusement in her voice.

"Are you trying to shoot the moon?" Thomas asked.

"Sort of." Nico said, picking up the cards. "I'm trying to figure out how I can get back into combat." She started the next trick with the Six of Wands.

"Have you come up with anything yet?" Lily asked.

"Yeah. I think with the right wig, I could pass myself off as Neige." Nico said as Thomas played the Four of Swords.

"That's a great idea." Said Lily. "Except for the part where you don't sound like Neige, don't act like Neige, don't know how to use a sniper rifle, and you'd have to explain why there are two Neiges in the squad." She played the Five of Swords, and pushed the cards towards Nico. "You win again."

" _Why_ do you want to go back on combat duty?" Thomas asked, playing the Two of Swords after Nico's Three of Cups. "Not getting shot at sounds like a good deal to me."

"No one else should be in danger because I messed up." Nico said.

"It's… unfortunate, but sometimes there's nothing you can do, Nico. Sometimes, even if you do everything you're supposed to, things just don't go the way you want." Lily played the Two of Wands, then pushed the pile to Nico.

Nico took up the cards again. She flipped through her hand, and then smiled. "You're right, Lily. And sometimes…" She turned her hand around to show each of the Sword cards "Even when things look bad, they work out just fine."

* * *

"So, you're the new assistant Lieutenant Wallace sent me?" The other woman asked. She gave her head a tilt to the side, and her brown pigtails swung in time.

"Yes, Ma'am. Just tell me what you need me to do!" Nico said, holding a clenched hand in front of her to emphasize the point.

"Well, I like your enthusiasm, but maybe we she introduce ourselves first? I'm Karen."

"Nico Emery, Ma'am."

"…Just Karen is fine. Besides, I think we're about the same age."

"They let you become a doctor that young? Really?"

"Well, I'm not a doctor, I'm a medic. Being willing to run into a combat zone is more important than training." Karen's face became quizzical. "Do you have any experience with medicine?"

"Yeah. Sister Magda used to be a doctor. She taught me- er, she taught me a _few_ things." Living in a remote area meant there wasn't time to call for a doctor if something went wrong. All of them knew at least a little.

Nico surveyed the medical tent. There were multiple cots laid out, all empty at the moment. Several cabinets at one end held a variety of labeled bottles, presumably various medicines. And tucked in one corner were two bowls, one full of water.

"Oh, those." Karen noted, following Nico's gaze. "Those are Ragnarok's." Nico furrowed her brow. "Ragnarok. I've heard that word before. That was the name of… some pagan apocalypse, wasn't it?" Nico looked at Karen, puzzled. She didn't outright ask the question, but it was written on her face.

"We just thought it sounded cool. He's a nice dog, really." She was interrupted by barking. "Well, speak of the devil-" Nico gave her another confused look. "It's just a saying."

Ragnarok was not a particularly large dog. Nico could've mistaken him for a fox, with his short orange fur and pointed head. He wore a small hat, tilted to one side. Nico wasn't sure how they got him to keep it on. He watched Nico attentively.

"Go on, try petting him. He doesn't bite."

* * *

"So, how's the bite doing today?" Jimmy asked her.

"It's doing better. Just fine. Nothing to worry about!" Nico replied, with a smile that was too wide to be genuine. It wasn't as if she was lying, though. It was doing better. In fact, even though it had only happened yesterday, the injury was completely gone.

"Really?" Jimmy said, looking at the huge knot of white bandages that had enveloped most of Nico's arm below the elbow. "Because it looks like you've got a lot more there than yesterday."

"Oh, well, Karen just wants to be sure everything's fine. Plus, you have to be really careful about germs." And letting people know your body heals inhumanly fast. And sometimes glows in the process. "It should be fine to come off in a few days."

"Well, other than your canine troubles, how's work at the infirmary?"

"Well, it's been very… We've… I've done a lot of… um…" Other than getting bitten, she hadn't done much.

"Boring?" Nico stared. Jimmy's face was drawn into a scowl she'd seen before. This was Jimmy's other side; the serious, seasoned soldier.

"What?" Nico asked, more taken aback by his bluntness than confused.

"You're bored, aren't you?" Jimmy asked.

"Yeah." Nico said. "We've gone over _what_ to do in emergencies, and that's about it." She shook her head. "But I shouldn't complain about that. It's good that nobody's been hurt. I don't like being bored, but I don't want to not be bored. If that makes any sense."

"It makes perfect sense." Jimmy replied. "Most of being in the army is being bored. The rest is wishing you were bored again."

* * *

It was about a week and a half later that something interesting happened, and Nico did indeed miss being bored.

The castle was beautiful, an august building of red stone. The white brick road leading up to it and the fountain plaza in front of it had probably once been beautiful, before multiple tanks had pulverized them. The Empire currently occupied the castle, and Squad E was battling to drive them out. Nico and Karen were behind the line, waiting. The low, twisting walls around the brick road obscured much of the fighting. The only way to understand what was going on was by listening to the shouts and gunfire or go by whatever was on the radio. And all that told Nico was that the cacophony had moved away from them slightly. There was plenty of shouting about turrets and a dangerous bridge. Claude made several broadcasts ordering the squad to maintain current their current positions. A stalemate, then.

Nico was distracted by a series of soft, dull thuds, It was a subtle sound, hard to hear over the din of the battle except that was far more steady than any of those sounds. Nico looked over to Karen. She was crouching, clutching the metal case holding their supplies. She was tensed and ready to start running at any time. As Nico watched, the case rose and fell, slightly but rhythmically, beating a quiet staccato as Karen's hands shook.

"Are you nervous?" Nico asked.

"…A little. I've never been called into an actual battle before. I shouldn't be worried, though. It's a war crime to shoot a medic." Karen smiled. The rhythm continued. "How are you doing?"

"I'm alright. I've lived through…" She wanted to say two battles, but the first could hardly be called that. "…I'll live."

"You've been through a lot at your age, huh?" Karen asked.

Nico frowned. "Why does everyone bring up my age?"

"Because you're younger than us." Karen said. "And you show it. And your outfit isn't helping." They hadn't had a medic's uniform in Nico's size. The one she was currently wearing hung off her, and the sleeves had to be rolled up because they were too long. "You seem like an odd fit."

Nico felt the stone handle pressing into her back. "I'm a better fit here than I seem."

Their conversation was cut short. The radio crackled, and a voice came through. "Uh, hello? Could I get a medic over here?" It was Lily, and despite what she was saying, she sounded vaguely amused. "I think Thomas got hit." The words reached out and crushed Nico's midsection, forcing her breath out in a startled gasp. "At least, I think he is. He's rolling on the ground screaming a whole lot."

Nico was off before the radio had gone quiet. Karen took after her with a confused yelp, and Ragnarok followed after that. She wound her way through the plaza, weaving between hastily erected barriers, vaulting over a wall of sandbags. It was a simple matter. She had a duty to carry out. The fact it concerned one of her friends simply made it worse.

Her foot whacked into something, and sent her sprawling. The stonework rushed up to her face, and pain erupted in her nose. She started to push herself up.

"Here." A voice said. Nico had to blink a few times before her vision cleared enough to see Karen, offering her her hand. Nico took it without hesitation. Her legs kicked around, meeting something oddly-shaped and bulky that was definitely not stone. "Nico, calm down and focus." Nico looked back to see what it was that her feet kept hitting.

It was an imperial soldier, deceased.

Now looking at what she was doing, she moved her feet carefully onto the stone and pushed herself up. She and Karen took off at a run again. That mistake could cost them.

They finally reached Lily and Thomas, not far from the bridge that led from the fountain plaza into the castle. Thomas was on the ground, clutching his hands to his eye. His voice rose above the noise of battle in a desperate, pitiful, and inarticulate scream. His body was thrashing wildly. Lily was standing over him, seemingly oblivious to Thomas' plight, but watching the bridge closely.

"Can you get him to hold still?" Karen asked. "I can't do much when he's like… that."

Nico nodded, and approached him slowly. "Thomas? Thomas, can you hear me?" she asked, her voice carrying a calculated calmness. He didn't seem to respond. She knelt next to him, reached out, and took one of his wrists gently in her hand. He did not respond well to the sudden contact, lashing out in her general direction while still keeping one hand to his head. Nico was fortunate that most of his

"Go away! Go away!" He yelled.

"Thomas, it's me, Nico. Please don't worry." She tried her best to project her voice, though it came out more like a half-yell. She started tracing a circle on his wrist with her thumb. "We're here to help. Just leave it to us."

That did get a response. The yelling, thrashing and kicking quelled. "Nico? Really?"

"Yes. Just leave it to us." Nico said, keeping her hand on his wrist. Karen walked to Thomas' other side and knelt. Ragnarok took a seat beside her.

"Please move your hand." Karen said clinically.

"Okay." Thomas said, still sounding shocked. He moved his hand, showing that half his face was covered in blood. Karen started by trying to wipe away the blood, but Thomas kept jerking away from her hand.

"Hey, Thomas, have you ever heard… uh… The Legend of… Ragnarok?" Nico asked. It was hardly the most creative idea, but he needed a distraction.

"N-no…"

"Well, once upon a time a time, the pagan god Odin decided that he wanted to know everything. So a talking Raven came and told him it would give him all the knowledge in the world if he let the Raven eat his eye. But after the Raven finished, he revealed that he made the whole thing up and flew away. So Odin got mad and ordered his pet goat to eat the Raven. But the goat was so hungry, he ended up eating the whole world. And that's how the Apocalypse will happen."

Thomas, his face clearer of blood, stared at Nico blankly.

"They don't teach you much about heathen legends at a convent, do they?" Lily asked.

"Oh, no. They taught me a lot about them. I just… didn't always pay attention." Nico replied sheepishly. "Usually, there was-"

"WHAT THE HELL?" Karen yelled. Thomas flinched. Nico fell backwards. Ragnarok whimpered. Even Lily seemed taken aback.

"What's wrong?" Nico asked.

"His face. Look at it." Karen responded. Nico pushed herself up and looked closely at Thomas' now-clean face. It looked perfectly fine, save for a long, shallow cut about his eyebrow.

"Oh. Oh! Good news, Thomas; its just a little cut. You're perfectly fine." Nico said, overjoyed.

"You called us out for _this?_ We're on a battlefield. When you call us out here, you're putting our lives in danger. You can't do that do that because you got a little scrape!" Karin berated.

Lily cleared her throat, far louder than it had any right to be. " _Thomas_ freaked out. _I_ called you."

Karen, still angry, cut off a length of bandage and wrapped it around Thomas' head. "That will keep any further blood out of your eye. You're fine."

"So, um, why is everyone waiting around here?" Nico asked.

"I'll show you." Lily said. She picked up a piece of rubble about the size of the size of her fist. "You see the two walls around the bridge?" She cocked her hand and launched the piece as far as she could. It clattered down around the middle of the bridge. A second later there was the roar of gunfire, accompanied by the sound of numerous ricochets.

"We've got this side, but it's suicide to cross the bridge." Lily said. "I wonder if they'll end up trying to order us across anyways?"

"How many guns are up there?" Nico asked.

"Nico, we need to pull back." Karen said. "This isn't our job."

"About four, I think. But I think that's enough or kill anyone." Lily said without acknowledging Karin.

It was an easy issue to solve. All she had to do was draw the knife, walk out into the middle of the bridge, and take out the guns. Simple. She'd taken a barrage of gunfire before, and it hadn't been much more than an annoyance. And that was assuming whoever was operating the guns wouldn't simply flee when they saw a glowing girl on the bridge. It would all take about a minute.

It would also be a violation of international law. At the moment, she was a medic. She was here to keep her comrades alive. She was only allowed to draw a weapon in self-defense. And actually doing so would put her at seventeen.

And if she didn't, her friends might die in a futile attempt to do what she could take care of.

And if she did, the Empire could take it as an excuse to ignore the law and start shooting medics. How many people would die if that happened?

They didn't need Nico, the assistant medic. They needed Nico the… what was she, exactly? Nico the glowy-blue-shooty-person? She had heard legends about women tearing through armies covered in blue flames, hadn't she? Or had that been some novel she'd read?

"So, I hear you guys are having a little problem?" said a voice Nico had ever heard before. They turned to look at the newcomer. Her ribbed blue sweater, shoulder-length blonde hair, and skirt that looked like she had cut the bottom ninety percent of a regular skirt, were rather incongruous with the battlefield. The only signs she was there as a soldier were her fingerless gloves and the large mechanism strapped to her back.

She had a male companion in a more familiar military get-up, though the large armored plate extending from the waist, giving the appearance of wearing a tan apron, was unusual. He was rather unkempt-looking, with his green hair going in every possible direction and a few days' worth of stubble on his chin. The eyes behind his horn-rimmed glasses were watching attentively.

"We were just talking about that, actually. Bridge, Machine guns, meat grinder. I can show you if you want." Lily said, reaching for another chunk of brick.

"Uhh… That's okay. I think we can handle this." The blonde woman said. She turned around and bent her knees, planting the mechanism on the ground. She turned around and gave it a push, leaning it forward onto its a-frame legs. Finally, she gave it a shove to fully extend the arm. "Connor, what's the wind?"

The man- Connor, it seemed- consulted a gage of some kind he was carrying. "Eastbound, five miles per hour."

"Easy." The blonde woman said. She adjusted her machine slightly and then fed a metal shell into it. Something went off, sending out a loud boom and a blue flash. It traced a high arc through the air, reaching apogee far above any structure around, and crashed down around one of the machine guns. Several chunks of metal, and what appeared to be most of the gunner, were flung into the water below. "See? Aren't mortars wonderful?"

"Quite." Karen said, before gesturing to Nico that they needed to leave. Nico followed her without a word.

"By the way," Connor asked her as she walked by, "Aren't you that girl from the convent."

Nico sighed. "Yes, I am."

"Could I get an interview with you? Er, once the battle is over, I mean." He asked.

"Certainly." Nico said. Karen had been walking the whole time, so Nico took off after her at a run. Her eyes turned skywards, and she said a soft "Thank you."

 **Author's Note: I had some trouble figuring out what to do with some of the earlier chapters, and this was the best way I could think to do it. Rest assured, Nico will be back in the fight before too much longer. It's weird for me to think that this is already my longest fanfic ever, and that it's still nowhere near done.**

 _Bonus Scene:_

"Since the three of you already seem to get along well," Claude said to Nico, Lily, and Thomas, "The three of you will be bunking together for the moment. _However,_ I will be changing the arrangements if there are any problems between you, or any violations of regulations. Are there any questions?"

"Why are you looking at me!?" Thomas asked.

Nico raised her hand "Um, which regulations are you talking about?"

"I don't think that will be a problem." Lily said, a hint of amusement in her voice. "Besides, Nico carries a knife around for things like that."

"W-wait, Nico, is that true?" Thomas asked, suddenly nervous.

"No, of course not!" Nico answered. "I don't have the knife for stabbing my friends!"

"You ARE carrying around a knife? Oh my God…"

"Somehow, I never thought being in the army would be quite like this." Claude said to himself.


	7. Poor Ideas

"So, how does that feel?" Nico asked as she let go of the bandage. She hoped it was right. It looked right at least.

The boy in the cot, Curtis- "boy" was probably the right word, since he was only a little older than Nico herself- watched the whole thing, scowling all the while. He tugged on the bandages, shifted his leg experimentally, and finally tried wiggling his toes. "…Fine." He said, not bothering to look up or meet Nico's eyes.

"O-okay! That's good. So, um…" Nico tried to come up with something to say. Curtis was a fellow Scout, but they'd never talked before. Their first attempt had thus far not gone well. Now he'd been brought to the medical tent. She wasn't exactly sure why. He'd been fine through the battle at the castle-or was it a fort?- and that had been several days ago. "How did you get injured, anyways?"

She saw a tremor going through Curtis' body. "Go." He said.

"What?" Nico asked, confused. She looked at him pleadingly, but he still wouldn't look at her.

"Just go away." Curtis said.

"A-alright. Call me if you need anything." Nico said before turning away. That probably hadn't the best question to ask. She went to the other end of the tent to check the inventory on medicine. She wasn't sure it actually needed to be done, but it was probably best to leave Curtis alone for the moment.

"Curtis? You in there?" Came a voice from the edge of the tent. Nico looked over to see a tall young man with dark- _very_ dark- brown hair wearing a Lancer's uniform. He stood with his head high, smiling, but seemed to fidget- less out of nervousness than to give his energy some outlet.

"Oh, hello, um… Keigel, right?" Nico responded.

The Lancer's face fell. "That's the old guy!" he said.

Nico grimaced. Their squad had six lancers; three men and three women. She already knew Jimmy, so she'd had a fifty percent chance of guessing his name right. "So, you're Laurent then?"

He nodded, though his smile still didn't quite come back. "Yep. Heard Curtis just got taken in?" he asked.

"That's correct." Nico answered. "He'll need to stay here the next few days, but he should be fine."

"Great. Can I talk to him?" Laurent asked.

"Oh! Well, you can certainly try." Nico leaned and whispered; "Please be careful what you say. I think he's a little upset about what happened. "

Laurent seemed to consider this for a moment, then nodded and went to talk to his friend.

* * *

"How's it going, man?" Laurent asked as he approached his friend's cot. Curtis actually smiled at him. It was an understated look, but Laurent had learned that a small expression could mean a lot.

"Not so good, unfortunately." Curtis answered. He rubbed the bandage on his leg. "I've never gotten hurt this badly before."

"What _did_ happen? Did some imps sneak up on you?" Laurent asked.

Curtis shook his head. "I did it." He said.

Laurent stared at his friend. "Huh?"

"I…" Curtis looked away "There was an accident during training."

"What kind of accident?" Laurent asked.

"The kind that hit a vein. A big one." Curtis said, gesturing to the bandages encircling his right thigh.

Laurent winced in sympathy.

"I'm lucky it was only this bad. If the wound had been a little bit to the side, it could've hit the artery instead." Curtis said. "Then I wouldn't even be here."

"Well, look on the bright side." Laurent said. He was used to Curtis' downcast moods. "You get to spend a while in bed while they're running the rest of us ragged."

Curtis gave a rueful chuckle. "You're getting the better part of that deal. If this cot was any harder, they'd be using it as tank plating."

Still unhappy, but he was starting to joke. That was a good sign. "And you've got a cute girl to take care of you." Laurent said, gesturing in Nico's direction.

Curtis sighed. "A cute girl who probably thinks I hate her. I didn't give her a good first impression."

Laurent wasn't terribly surprised to hear it. Socializing wasn't Curtis' strong suite. "Okay, so make a better second impression."

"It's not going to be that easy." Curtis shot back.

"Ah, come on, you'll do fine." Laurent replied. "Just think of it as practice. The ladies are going to love a pair of war heroes. And plus, you're going to need something to do here."

* * *

For once, there was no card playing that night. Thomas, having found a notebook and a pencil somewhere, was writing something out at a downright insane pace. He seemed to be flipping to a new page every minute or two, and he had several other notebooks at his side, ready when that one was done. He kept muttering to himself under his breath, but Nico couldn't pick out enough to make anything out.

Nico had a few torn up uniforms, a spool of thread, and a few uniforms with tears that needed mending.

That left Lily. She alternated between reading from a dog-eared book she had found somewhere and messing with her cards, either trying to do more readings or playing some form of solitaire. She punctuated it throughout with annoyed sighs that were just a bit louder than they needed to be.

"Are you doing alright, Lily?" Nico asked after a while.

"It's fine. It's only boredom." Lily said.

"Oh, well, um…" Nico remembered being warned against trying to make small talk while sewing, but she couldn't remember why at the moment. Lily could use a little help, and Thomas was so wrapped up in his writing that he didn't seem to hear them. "How's your family doing?" she asked.

"Probably still dead." Lily answered.

"WHAT?" Nico asked, louder than she had meant to. The fact she'd just stuck her finger with her needle hadn't helped.

"There haven't been a whole lot of cases of people coming back from the dead, you know." Lily said.

"Wha-what happened? Was it…" Nico couldn't bring herself to finish. Her hands her proceeding with the sewing on autopilot.

Lily actually smirked. "Oh, no. My mom died when I was a child. She had a little trouble on the stairs. My dad died four years ago, when a hungry rhino escaped the zoo."

"Wait, what?" Nico asked, confused. "Don't rhinos eat plants?"

"Of course. Which is why he shouldn't have been standing between it and that bush." Lily said. "And last year, there was my boyfriend Francis. He was such a sweet guy." Her face twisted in confusion. "They never did figure out why the flower shop exploded."

"I'm sorry, Lily" Nico said. "I didn't know you'd lost so many people."

"It's okay. I'm over it." Lily said, looking at something over Nico's right shoulder. "You're the ones who should be worried."

"Well, I am worried about you now." Nico replied. Thomas still did not acknowledge anything.

"No, I mean you should be worried about yourselves." Lily responded. "You both have a pretty good chance of dying like that, now." Lily gave her usual smirk. Or rather, she gave something that was close to it, but to Nico it looked off somehow.

Nico shivered. She could feel the gloom settling over the room, weighing her down. She didn't- _wouldn't_ \- lose someone again. How could Lily talk like that?

The sound of scribbling stopped. Thomas looked up, his face looking oddly resolute. "Have you truly surrendered so easily? How foolish! You shall find us more that equal to any misfortune."

Nico blinked. That was an odd way to put it, but it made sense. Had Lily just… given up? She couldn't let that stand. She had to do something to help. She didn't know what yet, but she would have to figure something out.

Thomas returned to his writing. Lily went back to her book. Nico had still been sewing the whole time, but before she could fully turn her attention to it, she noticed the cover of Lily's book.

"Hey, Lily?" Nico asked.

"Yes?" Lily replied.

"What's your book about?" Nico asked.

"Oh, this?" Lily said, looking at the woman glowing blue and brandishing a lance on the cover. "It's a novel set during the age of the Valkyrur. You know about them, right?"

Nico shook her head.

"They were a tribe from northern Europa who went to war with the Darcsens in ancient times. Legend says they were covered in blue flames that could stop a sword." Thomas briefly stopped writing to listen.

"Lily, could I please read that book?" Nico said. She was a Valkyrur, or something like that. Knowing exactly what that meant and what one could do would certainly help.

Lily smiled. "I never knew you liked history so much. But sure, you can borrow it." Lily held it out to her.

"Oh, no. You can finish it first." Nico said.

"Nico, I've already read it four times." Lily said.

Nico reached out to take it, only to discover that in the process of her absent-minded needlework, she had inadvertently sewed the uniform to her sleeve.

"Could you please help with this?" Nico asked.

* * *

Nico didn't always pay attention at Mail Call. She had known some people in the villages around the convent, but she didn't know any of them all that well, and none of them had ever written to her. She had, over time, noticed certain patterns; Godwin never received anything and was usually impatient for the whole thing to be over. Lily occasionally received a letter, though they were somehow or another junk mail. Jimmy got mail regularly, and was always happy to get it. Thomas got letters from home fairly regularly, but he was never very happy about it.

They had something for Curtis. She picked it up to take to the infirmary later. She settled in to wait until they had gone through everything. It took Nico off guard when they actually had a letter for her.

She came forward to take the envelope. She looked over it, rather confused. The return address certainly wasn't familiar. It came from a city she'd never been to. She frowned. Where had this come from?

She was so busy thinking about it, she never heard Jimmy approaching. "So, what do you have there?" he asked.

"It's a letter from… somebody." Nico answered.

"Hmm," Jimmy said, sounding thoughtful. "Could I take a look at that?"

Nico handed it to him. He looked over it for a moment, smiled, and gave it back to her. "Just at I thought" he said.

"What is it?" Nico asked.

"I'm pretty familiar with this address. Take a look." Jimmy held up his own envelope, with the same return address on it.

Nico didn't need to ask her question out loud. Her puzzled expression asked it for her.

"I told my wife about you. She said she'd be happy to let you stay with us for a while- but she'd like to get to know you a bit first. Try to write her back when you get the time.

Nico looked at the envelope once more. It was suddenly a more welcome sight.

* * *

Nico had long lost track of what was going on in battle. Squad E was surrounded and trying to fight their way out. They were in another big city- or maybe every city that had paved every street seemed big to her They had just shot some numbered signs on a tower that had somehow resulted in a barrage of artillery fire on an enemy position. She was relieved that it worked, although she had no idea how.

She and Karin were hanging back for the moment. Keigel- and she was sure this one actually was Keigel- had already had a close call with an enemy Shocktrooper, but he was probably out of danger at this point. Karin didn't have quite the same problem with nerves- she could hardly be called relaxed, stooped over Keigel as he lay on a patch of grass- but she was working in a focused, businesslike way.

The next development came as a quick warning over the radio, a chorus of swearing, and a burst of echoing gunfire, coming and going in several waves. Finally, there was a message of "Man down on Main Street".

Nico took off immediately. Karin was after her a moment later, with Ragnarok running at her heels. Karin called after her to stay focused.

This time, Nico was able to get to the patient with no trouble. He was being watched by Norrid, one of the Snipers. "Hello." Norrid greeted them casually. As far a s Nico could tell, he was not actually capable of worrying. "He looks pretty messed up."

"What happened?" Nico asked.

"One of the imperials stepped on his own mine coming around the corner. Godwin was too close." Norrid answered.

Nico glanced down at Godwin. He had numerous bloody lacerations, and she could see shining pieces of shrapnel. He was still breathing, but it was roung and ragged. Karin finally caught up with her. She took one look at Godwin, before digging two pairs of forceps out of her kit and handing one to Nico. "Pull the shrapnel, then apply Ragnaid. You take right side, I'll take left. Go."

The two of them knelt by either side of Godwin. It was grisly work. The soft, wet sound of digging through loose flesh was wretched, and the smoke-filled air was furthered soured with a subtle tang of blood. Godwin still had enough strength left to pull away from the forceps. Nico found herself repeatedly drawing back to avoid troubling him, only to remind herself that she didn't have time to hesitate.

A small pile of bloody shrapnel started to pile up next to her, and her Ragnaid container slowly emptied. Godwin's breathing got smoother, bit-by-bit. Karin finished on the other side, and moved over to kneel next to her.

Godwin flexed his fingers. "Where's… ring?" he asked nobody in particular, his voice still weak even with his injuries mostly mended. Nico kept working, but she didn't forget what she'd heard.

* * *

The sun was halfway below the horizon, and the light was disappearing. The city streets were quiet now. The fighting was over, and the remaining imperials had pulled out. There was scarcely anybody in town save for a few Federation soldiers.

Nico was crawling across the cobblestones on her hands and knees. She patted across the ground with her hands thoroughly, occasionally leaning over and looking across the ground to see if there was any kind of irregularity.

It took her by surprise when a light came up behind her. "Nico?" a voice asked. She looked to see Rosetta standing over her, holding a lantern. Her usually controlled features had a mix of concern and confusion.

"Oh, hello Rosetta." Nico said. "Is everything alright?"

"I was just about to ask you that." Rosetta responded. "What are you doing out here?"

"Looking for something. A ring." Nico said.

Rosetta gave a thoughtful sound. "So what does it look like?"

"Well… It looks like a ring." Nico answered.

"You're looking for a ring you haven't seen?" Rosetta answered. "How do you know there is a ring out here?"

"Because Godwin lost it. At least, I think he did." Nico said.

Rosetta let out a sigh. "It is good that you want to help, Nico. But it's getting late, and if you couldn't find it before things got dark, you're not going to find it after. Come, let's go in."

"But it could be something important to him!" Nico said.

"You may be right. But we are only human, Nico. We have our limits." Rosetta said.

Nico suddenly perked up and scrambled over a few feet before plucking something off the ground. She pushed herself to her feet and showed it off to Rosetta. It was a band of gold, with the words _To Eve_ carved into the inside edge.

Rosetta frowned for a moment before adding, "Fortuitous, but you need to remember that sometimes, there's nothing you can do."

The two of them returned to the rest of the Squad. Nico had a spring in her step.

* * *

Nico came to the infirmary tent the next day. Godwin was still laid out, as was Curtis. She went to Godwin and gave him an enthusiastic greeting. He gave an annoyed grunt and rolled his eyes. Nico's enthusiasm faltered.

"Are you going to let me out of this dump soon?" Godwin asked.

"Uh, I think so. We just wanted to keep an eye on you for a day or two." Nico answered.

"Tch. Great. Every day I'm in here, I'm losing money." Godwin complained.

"But, don't they pay us the same no matter what?" Nico asked.

"You don't know anything." Was all Godwin had to say.

Nico swallowed. She hadn't expected a cordial conversation, but she hadn't anticipated she would have so much trouble. What had she planned on saying? "So how's Eve doing?"

Godwin squinted at her, probably trying to figure out why she would bring it up.

"You were mumbling something about a ring after you got hit-" Godwin managed to wince and glare at her in the span of about a second. Nico gave herself a quiet reminder to choose her words better next time. "But you didn't have a ring on you, so I went back and found this." Nico pulled out the ring and showed it to him.

Godwin smiled. It somehow failed to make his face seem any friendlier. "Well, wasn't that nice of you? Just give it here." He reached his hand out to her, and she set the ring in his palm. Godwin took the ring, holding it up to his face.

His smile immediately disappeared. "What's wrong?" Nico asked, puzzled.

"What's this shit doing on here?" Godwin asked.

Nico stared at the ring, puzzled. It didn't look dirty to her or anything. "Um, I don't see anything."

"What do you mean you don't see anything? It's right there!" said Godwin.

Nico squinted at that ring. Whatever it was that had upset Godwin so much wasn't standing out to her. "I-I'm sure it'll be fine, Godwin. Eve will still like it."

Godwin's head snapped towards her. His eys narrowed into a glare. Nico felt like a heavy weight went crashing into her stomach. "You think I'm the one who would ruin a good ring with this crappy engraving?"

Nico gaped. "That's not yours?"

Godwin sneered. "It is now. Not like some stiff's gonna need it."

"Y-you stole it?" Nico asked. "You stole it from someone's corpse?"

"Wow, you actually figured that out. Guess you do have a second brain cell." Godwin said.

"Godwin, how could you?" Nico said, her hands tightening into fists. "You can't just treat the dead like that-" A memory of trying to wrench off a dead soldier's helmet came back to her.

"Oh, shove it with your self-righteousness. Doesn't the goody two-shoes act get old?" Godwin said.

Nico couldn't meet his eye after that. She scurried away, looking for anything else to do.

* * *

"It looks like you're about healed up!" Nico said. "You should be ready to go back into service soon."

Curtis nodded. He seemed distracted by something. "And how are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm doing alright. Don't worry." Nico said. The last thing she wanted was to weigh on him any more.

"Have you been doing anything... interesting... lately?" Curtis asked.

Nico studied his face, puzzled. "I've been here at the infirmary." she said. "I haven't done much that wasn't here. Oh, except cards. I play cards with Thomas and Lily sometimes."

Curtis looked at her. She couldn't see much of a change in his expression.

"Oh, and Lily let me borrow her book. I haven't gotten to read much, though."

Silence descended quickly. Curtis didn't give any outward reaction until he finally asked, "Could I ask you a favor, then?"

"Certainly!" Nico said.

"Could you read some of it to me? If you have time. You can just start where you left off reading." Curtis said.

Nico went back to the desk she and Karen used, then returned with the tattered book in hand.

"It was right before the big battle between the heroine Hilda and the barbarian king Oscar..." Nico read on. She suspected this wouldn't qualify as particularly good literature, but it was entertaining, and fights with swords and spears were different enough from their day-to-day concerns to not be too bothersome. At least, she assumed it didn't bother Curtis; his expression didn't seem to change much.

"And so, Hilda's final swing sent Oscar's axe flying from his hands and into the ravine, only for her to realize that she had shattered her lance in the process. It was just her and him now, and they had nothing but their bodies to go at it with." Curtis raised an eyebrow, though Nico didn't quite notice. "Hilda looked over her opponent. He was a magnificent specimen of a man, covered head to toe in thick muscle and clad only in a few scant furs. She realized that he had also been looking her over, before he smiles at her. She smiled back. It had been a long battle, and now it was time to... have some fun?" Nico said, a bit confused as to where the story was going. "He took her throbbing-" Nico abruptly cut herself off as her face turned red. She skimmed over the next several pages, confirming her new concerns. This was one of _those_ books.

She had tried reading one once at the convent, keeping it hidden away under her mattress. She ended up being so nervous about it that she threw it in a fire when nobody else was looking after barely reading it. She didn't think the sisters ever knew she had it, or would have even cared enough to merit her concern.

"I think that's enough." Curtis said. "Thank you."

Nico went to put the book away.

* * *

It was on one of their occasional downtime days that Nico approached Rosetta with an unusual question.

"Rosetta, you've had a pretty good education, right?" Nico asked.

"Well, I certainly don't think it was bad. What brings this up?" Rosetta said.

"There's something I wanted to ask." Nico said. Rosetta looked at her expectantly. "Do you know anything about the Valkyria?"

Rosetta's face fell and she let out an annoyed sigh. Nico winced. "Yes, I am familiar with them." Rosetta said. "What do you want to know?"

"I- well, I guess I'm really just curious in general." Nico said.

Rosetta nodded. "I suppose that's fair enough, given the kind of rumors that have been going around."

Nico tried to look unconcerned. She wasn't sure how well she did.

"According to… certain historical sources, in the ancient past a tribe known as the Valkyrur from the north of Europa came and conquered much of the continent." Rosetta said. "The women who led them could supposedly cover themselves in azure flames that would consume any who would even try to harm them. A religion formed among those they conquered, calling them gods on earth."

"But as tends to happen with such empires, they eventually fell. Supposedly they were wiped out in a cataclysm that scorched much of Europa, for which the Darcsens were blamed. Those who worshipped the lost tribe- those we would now call Yggdists- Weren't simply angry with the Darcsens. They declared them to be demons, and said that the only way to return their "gods" to the world was to wipe out all of the "demons"".

"That's horrible." Nico said quietly.

"To be honest, I doubt they truly existed. Or, at least the way they comported themselves." Rosetta shook her head. "More than a few people think that the Valkyrur were simply a tribe that figured out how to use Ragnite as a weapon before their neighbors and built a short-lived empire. They implemented a cult around their leaders to make them more palatable to the people they conquered, and it ended up far outliving their empire. Unfortunately."

"You really don't like the Yggdists, do you?" Nico asked.

"I don't" Rosetta said matter-of-factly. "Ordinarily, I would say that other religions are an attempt to understand the divine that we should respect, even if we don't agree. But I could never encourage respect for treating hate and prejudice as divine mandate."

Nico nodded. It wasn't that she hadn't heard of Yggdists before, but she knew about as much about them as she did about pagans.

"So, what rumors where you talking about?" Nico asked.

"There's talk that the Empire has somehow found a throwback to the Valkyrur- a Valkyria. Or maybe two." Rosetta said. "As I said before, I doubt it's anything more than propaganda."

"I see. Thank you." Nico said. She shuffled away, her face downcast, leaving a confused Rosetta behind.

* * *

"All of you will be participating in tonight's operation." Lieutenant Wallace said to the others gathered around the table. He pointed to the map lying there. "We're sending one team down each of these parallel creek beds-"

"Aren't the creek beds going to be full of water?" Connor asked before adding a belated "sir?"

Raz glared at him. Connor didn't seem to notice. "No, private Dougherty. There hasn't been any water flowing through them for more than a hundred years." Lieutenant Wallace said. "They're cut very deep into the ground, so it's faster to follow them than to keep trying to climb in and out to go in a straight line. Raz and I will be taking the eastern bed, while you three-" he gestured to Connor, Thomas, and Curtis "will be taking the western bed. Connor will be providing mortar support. You two will need to cover him. Take you time and above all, be careful."

"As for you two," Lieutenant Wallace said, gesturing to Nico and Karin, "we'll need to split the two of you up. We can't afford to send both of you down one bed and end up losing someone in the other. Karin will be on the eastern bed, and Nico will be on the western one. Can you handle that?"

"Yes, Sir." Karen said.

"IIIII… think so, sir." Nico said.

Lieutenant Wallace shook head. "I need more than you thinking so, Nico. If you're not up to the task, I can see about getting someone else."

"I- Yes, sir, I can do it." Nico said.

"Are you certain?" Lieutenant Wallace asked sternly.

"Yes." Nico said.

Lieutenant Wallace nodded. "Good. Raz?"

Raz smacked the palm of one hand with a fist. "Heh. 'Course I'm ready."

"And you three?" Lieutenant Wallace asked the others.

Curtis nodded without a word.

"A midnight mission through hard terrain… that sounds amazing!" said Connor, with he excitement of a child who just found out he was going to an amusement park.

Thomas let out an amused chuckle. "Who do you think you're speaking to?" he said indignantly.

"Uhhh…" Lieutenant Wallace stared at him. "Private… Kevin?"

"Incorrect!" Thomas said. "I am not Thomas Kevin. I am Odin, god of battle and wielder of dark powers beyond mortal ken. I shall condescend to follow you for now, and I shall lay waste to all of your foes! I am more than equal to this task. I am- uhh, Nico? What are you doing?" he asked, as she put her hand on his forehead.

"I'm checking your temperature." Nico said.

"Why?" Odin asked.

"I'm worried you might have a fever. You're not making any sense." Nico pulled her hand away and turned to Lieutenant Wallace. "He feels normal but, sir, I don't think he's fit to participate."

"N-nico! I'm fine! Trust me on this!" Odin said.

Lieutenant Wallace shook his head. "I've learned that everybody in this squad has their… eccentricities, but I'm willing to give Private Kevin the chance to prove himself. All of you are dismissed. We'll reconvene at 1700."

Before Nico got the chance to ask Odin any questions, Connor dragged him away- literally dragged, leaving Nico marveling at what kind of strength it took to haul mortars- and was bombarding him with questions about his "apotheosis".

"I think I made a horrible mistake." Nico said.

Curtis seemed to ponder for a moment before shaking his head and leaving. Nico took a deep breath. She had a big night to get ready for.

 **Author's Note: Ten months, oh my God.**


End file.
